Prime Minister Jean Castex. - THOMAS SAMSON / AFP

No more time to waste. Jean Castex urged his ministers this Saturday to go "on the ground" to "hear the demands" and ensure the implementation of government decisions, during a first working seminar.

"I reminded you: I want the ministers to go on the ground to hear the demands of the French, businesses and local elected officials," tweeted the head of government during this meeting in Paris which lasted nearly three hours.

Meeting with the members of my Government to fix our working method. I reminded you: I want the ministers to go on the ground to hear the demands of the French, businesses and local elected officials. pic.twitter.com/vFB40UKhbd

- Jean Castex (@JeanCASTEX) July 11, 2020

Called by the press when he left on this appointment, he lifted his thumb by launching: “Super! "

Make way for the “Castex method”

During the first Council of Ministers earlier this week, "the President of the Republic has set the course" and "now there is the concrete translation with the" Castex method "", said government spokesman Gabriel Attal at the end of this seminar. It is “a government of 600 days” until the end of the five-year term, recalled Gabriel Attal, stressing that “we are in a moment of historic crisis for the country and we cannot wait to act”.

"There is a very marked concern by the Prime Minister of the concretization", which must lead "the members of the government to move, to go on the ground, in contact with the French" to "measure the concrete effects of the decisions" , he said. Jean Castex also has "a strong concern for dialogue, consultation, with local elected officials, businesses, associations" to "move forward" and "get in the world," reported the spokesperson.

"Working in short circuit"

The government also had "a fairly long political exchange around the declaration of general policy" that the Prime Minister will make to the National Assembly on Wednesday, after a television interview with Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday. It was "important that all members of the government could put forward their ideas," according to Gabriel Attal. One participant reported a "fairly prospective" exchange so that everyone gives their "perception of the terrain". Jean Castex wants "to work in short circuit", according to this minister.

Asked about a possible increase in the number of ministerial advisers, Gabriel Attal did not confirm but noted that for dialogue and concertation, it would be necessary "to have in the teams of ministers interlocutors able to respond and exchange with all the actors who participate in the life of the country ”. "Perhaps it is something that has somewhat lacked previously to have people identified on these subjects," he admitted.

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